Iowa (RI) — With the busy holiday shopping season going on, Iowans are being warned to be on guard for a boost in robocalls and phone scams, which are getting more sophisticated using artificial intelligence. Matt Mizenko, general manager of Nomorobo — an app that blocks spam calls and texts — says there was a big spike in robocalls and scammers in recent weeks, including fraud attempts related to the federal government shutdown.
One phone scam he says to be especially mindful of right now relates to open enrollment for health insurance, and those could last for the next several weeks.
For starters, he suggests you be wary of any call that comes in from an “unknown caller,” but even calls that look legit may not be.
He recommends downloading some sort of phone protection product to provide another layer of security, quizzing callers about who they are and why they’re calling.
He says his company is also seeing a recent surge in “spoofed” government numbers, which appear local and legitimate, but are neither.
KIWA Staff Graphic
